A teenage girl wounded alongside Malala Yousafzai has condemned the Pakistan
Taliban’s letter of regret as a “pack of lies”.

Kainat Riaz, 16, said the document – in which Adnan Rasheed, a notorious terrorist, said he had wanted to warn Malala against criticising the movement out of “brotherly” concern - was nothing more than a public relations stunt.

“There’s no truth that writer Adnan Rasheed is shocked at Malala’s attack. The Taliban consider her a great enemy and what has been described in the letter is a pack of lies,” she said.

“Malala would never come to Pakistan upon the Taliban’s invitation and would never seek admission to a Taliban-run seminary,” said Kainat, who was wounded in the shoulder as she sat alongside her friend in the school bus.

Malala was already a Pakistani celebrity when she was shot in her hometown of Mingora in October last year. Two masked men asked for her by name before opening fire as she travelled home from school.

She had kept a diary for the BBC detailing extremist abuses and had become a prominent education campaigner.

Her bravery has now turned her into a global figure.

Afrasiab Khattak, a family friend, said Rasheed’s letter was in part a threat to Malala and in part an attempt to wrest back the limelight.

“People like him can’t tolerate Malala’s appearance at the UN and the response she got,” he said. “He knows how much this costs their cause so this is damage control.”

Terrorist attacks are commonplace in Pakistan but the attempt of a schoolgirl’s life brought an unprecedented wave of condemnation. Reports surfaced of splits within the TTP amid realisation that they may have made a tactical mistake.

The new letter appears to be an attempt to spin the ruthless attack into an assault on Western anti-Islamic values.

“Taliban believe that you were intentionally writing against them and running a smearing campaign to malign their efforts to establish Islamic system in Swat and your writings were provocative,” wrote Rasheed, a former Pakistan Air Force technician who was jailed for his part in an attempt on the life of Pervez Musharraf, the former president.

Mushtari Begum, a grade 10 student at Khushal Public School, where Malala studied before being wounded, said her friend would not be intimidated by Taliban threats.

Instead, she said, the letter served as a reminder of Malala’s values.

“Islam says it was the duty of women to get education even if they had to proceed to another country but Taliban’s agenda is quite opposite to it. They want to close door of education on women,” she said.